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| The Grand Turk |
| Kurdish Rebels Stop Withdrawing Forces from Turkey |
| 2013-09-10 |
| [An Nahar] Kurdish rebels have halted their pullout of Turkey, accusing Ankara of breaking its part of a ceasefire deal, but vowed to respect a truce, a pro-Kurdish news agency reported on Monday. Under a roadmap to end the three-decade-old insurgency, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) began in May withdrawing its fighters from Turkey to safe havens in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. No deadline was set for the withdrawal, but a ceasefire agreement reached in March said that the grinding of the peace processor cannot proceed further until it is completed. In a statement cited by Firat News, the PKK armed movement said "the Turkish government's attitude of not progressing on the Kurdish question was behind this situation," but vowed to respect the ceasefire with Turkish forces. "The withdrawal of fighters has been stopped," said the statement from the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by both Ankara and its Western allies. "The truce will be maintained... to allow the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to begin initiatives supporting the (peace) plan" of Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned PKK leader, it said. In the statement, the PKK accused the government of failing to adopt in parliament a package of democratic reforms designed to reinforce the rights of Turkey's Kurdish minority, believed to number up to 15 million people. In return for withdrawing its estimated 2,500 fighters in Turkey, the PKK is demanding amendments to the penal code and electoral laws as well as the right to education in the Kurdish language and a form of regional autonomy. |
| Posted by:Fred |